GE Hopes the Industrial Internet will Mean the End of Downtime

WSJ ^ | November 26, 2012, 6:12 PM ET | Rachael King

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

In GE’s vision of the future, the company will be able to fix or replace its products before they ever break. In that world, airlines will receive notices from GE many miles before a jet engine part is likely to fail, railroads will be able to avoid derailments, appliance repair people will be able to diagnose problems remotely, and hospital administrators will be better able to allocate sparse resources to patients. That future hinges on the ability of those devices to communicate status updates collected from sophisticated sensors over an industrial Internet that connects people to machines and machines to one another, much in the way that people are connected over the Web today.  

While the potential of this technology has been discussed for years, there are signs that it’s finally gaining traction in the present. GE hopes to be an agent of this change — and a beneficiary of it as well by building this technology into its products and hoping its customers buy it. The Internet of Things, or the industrial Internet as GE terms it, has the potential to add $10-$15 trillion to global GDP by 2030, according to a report issued by the company Monday. According to the report, a 1% increase in efficiency generated thanks to the Internet of Things can mean savings of $30 billion in aviation, $66 billion in power generation and $63 billion in healthcare over 15 years. While self-serving, this research highlights that a much- and long-hyped technology is finally maturing, and that some people have finally figured out what to do with all these masses of data that Big Data and the Internet of Things are making available.

[DManA]

This is probably why the UN is making another run at taking over (and wrecking) the Internet. Can’t have all that economic growth. Our Mother can’t sustain it.

[Fred]

So how soon will GE attach themselves to the public tit for their corporate welfare on this latest scheme?

[newheart]

Oh sure. Human beings using ubiquitous, all encompassing data technologies to make our lives easier. What could possibly go wrong?

[American in Israel]

Oh, so GE is going to tell me to buy a part that has not broken because they feel its going to. Nice, that is if everyone at GE is honest.

Funny how it works, we bail out GE and GE Capitol suddenly has tons of money to lend at interest, and millions to spend on TV adds to let us know, but GE is going bankrupt.

Stunning honesty.

[cicero2k]

I’m wary. There are security implications. What if this internet is hacked.

Can you imagine your refrigerator with a computer virus? Or being in a jet plane with the engines losing oil pressure, but the pilots are oblivious because of a computer virus?

This is why the electric grid, water treatment plants, refineries etc. should never be able to be operated remotely.

Similar reasoning to why paperless voting should never be allowed. These functions are too important to be allowed to be in the hands of a few technical persons that fully understand them.

[RBK]

STUXNET

[trebb]

I’m wary. There are security implications. What if this internet is hacked. Can you imagine your refrigerator with a computer virus? Or being in a jet plane with the engines losing oil pressure, but the pilots are oblivious because of a computer virus? This is why the electric grid, water treatment plants, refineries etc. should never be able to be operated remotely.

But think of all the manpower that can be saved. Plus, when people screw up, they can be sued - if the INTERNET screws up, who's to blame?

I'm with you - no thanks.